Potwari language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Potwari پوتوری |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Pakistan: Areas of Pakistani administered Kashmir, Rawalpindi, United Kingdom. | |
| Total speakers: | 4,680,000 | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northern zone Western Pahari Potwari |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | none | |
| ISO 639-3: | phr | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
The Potwari or Pahari-Potwari language (also known as Pothohari or Pothwari; Potwari: پوتوری; Urdu: پوٹھوہاری ) is an Indo-European language spoken from the Potwar district around Rawalpindi, Pakistan to the Cease-fire Line (LoC) of Indian administered Kashmir de-facto border in the Mirpur district of the Jammu area in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. It is closely related to Punjabi and Romany (Gypsy), but is distinct from these languages. Dialects include Pahari (Dhundi-Kairali), Pothwari (Potwari), Chibhali, Punchhi (Poonchi), and Mirpuri.[1] (Mirpuri can also refer to Mirpur Punjabi, a Lahnda language closely related to Western Punjabi.)
There is some dialect continuum with Hindko and the Jhelumi dialect of Punjabi. Potwari speakers may understand Punjabis both from India and Pakistan, but these groups may not understand Potwari - the reason being that Punjabi is the second-most spoken language in the subcontinent as a whole and in both India and Pakistan respectively whilst Potwari is highly concentrated in the North of Pakistan. Also, Punjab and Kashmir ("the crown" and "jewel", so to speak, of the subcontinent) have always shared strong links on several levels - trade, nobility & neighbourhood.
Every language is a "mongrel" language to some degree or another. Potwari is no different, with the majority of its modern-language roots being connected to Punjabi primarily and Romany.
[edit] Prevalence
Pothohari is the predominant language of Azad Kashmir.
In the United Kingdom, over 90% of British Pakistanis speak Potwari as their first language.[citation needed] Over 2/3 of these originate from Mirpur in Azad Kashmir
Every second Muslim in Britain speaks Potwari as their first language. Every third South Asian person in Britain is a Potwari speaker.[citation needed]
The Aapna Channel is the first ever Kashmiri TV channel in the Potwari language. The core audience of Apna Channel is the second largest linguistic group in the United Kingdom after English.
Several popular telefilms such as Miki Kharo England and its sequel Main Julian England have been made in Potwari.
[edit] References
- ^ Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. "Ethnologue Report for Pahari-Potwari." Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
